02/06/2025 | Writer: Kaos GL
Saki spoke in the General Assembly of the Parliament about the motion submitted to the Parliament by the Yeni Yol Group concerning the Investigation of Socio-Economic and Cultural Transformations in the Family Structure in Turkey.
DEM Party Istanbul Member of Parliament Özgül Saki spoke on May 27 in the General Assembly of Parliament about the motion submitted to Parliament by the Yeni Yol Group titled “Investigation of Socio-Economic and Cultural Transformations in the Family Structure in Turkey.”
Commenting on the research motion, which noted that “significant changes in the family structure” have occurred, Saki said they agree with the statistical findings of the motion but pointed out that its framework for evaluation is incomplete.
Emphasizing that the motion is fundamentally based on a conservative assumption that the institution of the family is weakening, Saki said the following:
“The transformation of care labor within the family into a crisis, the increase in divorce rates, and the spread of single-parent families, defining these phenomena solely as the erosion of family values, reducing the issue to individual choices, and covering up structural inequalities in society is misleading. If we are truly going to discuss this transformation, we must first talk about what women and LGBTI+ individuals experience within the family. Women choose not to stay in households where they are subjected to violence, their labor is exploited, and male dominance is reproduced, but rather to freely decide about their own lives. LGBTI+ people do not want to live in hiding. They want to leave family structures that deny their existence and produce violence, and live freely with their own identities. Given this situation, what we should propose as a solution is not to protect the family but, for example, the effective implementation of Law No. 6284, returning to the Istanbul Convention, expanding women’s shelters and public daycare centers, and recognizing the rising freedom struggle of women and LGBTI+ individuals.”
“Let women decide about their own bodies”
Saki stated that the motion tries to identify the so-called dissolution of the family institution but renders social dynamics invisible, and she used the following words:
“What needs to be done here is actually to listen to the demands of women, not to provide social support as charity, but to fight women’s poverty based on rights and implement policies that recognize women’s demands for equality. But what does the government do instead? It practically defines women as “service providers” within the family, wants to decide how many children they will have, and wants the state to decide whether they give birth by cesarean or vaginally. Yet, these are the very things that increase violence and discrimination against women. I say: first, prevent women’s poverty and femicides, develop social policies for women’s equal participation in social life, and let women decide about their own bodies.”
Tags: human rights, women, family
